Break the 1% Pay Cap - For a real pay rise for Public Sector Workers!

Like one of the many thousands of public sector workers I have had to live with the consequences of austerity for years as a result of the financial crash of 2007. A financial crash that was not of our making. We have been forced to accept a 1% cap on our pay for over five years, which has resulted in a loss of earnings of up to 8.4% due to increasing living costs and inflation rates. On average this means a loss of over £3000 for each worker.

This is at a time when the richest 1000 people across Britain have seen their wealth increase 5.4 per cent, reaching a record £547 billion. It is clear that the rich are not suffering, in fact they have benefited from austerity and cuts in wages and public services that have impacted all our communities.

Public service workers have been forced to survive with year on year cuts to wages that are constantly failing to meet the increasing cost of living, which is having a real and detrimental impact on us and our families. but this is also having an negative impact on our local economy as we are forced to make cuts on our spending, this has created a vicious circle of less money going into shops and businesses resulting in cuts in jobs and wages.

We have had no shortage of elections over the last few years, where political parties have asked for all our votes – we are now demanding what will they do for us in relation to our pay?

In short, public sector workers are asking the Assembly parties now to do something more than talk about support for public services and public servants. We are asking MLAs and councillors of all political parties to;

Fully support and vote for the 1% pay cap to be lifted and to support a real rise and pay restoration.

To fully invest in publicly-owned and run services to guarantee a fully functioning public sector, creating jobs and much needed services.

This would offset in a real way the legacy pay cuts that have had a massive detrimental impact on public sector workers and their families and ensure the provision of the much needed jobs and essential public services for all our communities.

Please support this petition and add to the pressure on the political parties to do the right thing -